WARNING! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI!

To paraphrase the opening narration of Twilight Zone homage The Outer Limits, "There is nothing wrong with your movie screen. Do not attempt to complain to the theater management about the lack of sound. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume." That's basically what a few movie theaters are telling audience goers who buy their tickets to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Why?

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It all has to do with that scene where the purple-haired Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) sacrifices herself, so the remaining Resistance escape pods can make it to Crait in one piece. She does this by ramming her ship into the First Order's vessel while traveling at hyperspeed, splitting the First Order's ship in twain. This sequence is considered to be one of the bolder choices writer-director Rian Johnson made for the movie, as it was something we'd never seen before in the franchise.

The whole thing is devoid of sound, and AMC theaters don't want viewers to get the wrong impression when the noise cuts out, wanting to make it clear that it is a deliberate creative decision on the part of the filmmakers and not a technical difficulty on the part of the theater. Actor/comedian Paul Scheer shared a picture of the theater disclaimer on Facebook, which says:

“Please note: The Last Jedi contains a sequence at approximately 1 hour and 52 minutes into the movie in which ALL sound stops for about 10 full seconds. While the images continue to play on the screen you will hear nothing. This is intentionally done by the director for a creative effect.”

"We are aware that this occurred at two of AMC’s 660 locations. The theaters have removed the sign," AMC Public Relations Director Ryan Noonan told SYFY WIRE via email.

The decision-making behind the silent scene was expressed by the film's VFX supervisor Ben Morris in an interview with Collider.

"We had always hoped that would resonate, both as a story beat and as a striking visual, and when I heard all of the cries and gasps in the silence, it was just fantastic. We realized that it worked," he said.

This disclaimer brings to mind the one AMC used for Cloverfieldback in 2008, warning that the film's found-footage style might induce motion sickness side effects in some audience members.